Ruiz continued to stab Alvardo 10 more times as her 2-year-old son, Brian Alvardo, slept in the back seat of Ruiz's Jeep Cherokee.

According to Ruiz, she also said "God, forgive me" during the attack. Ruiz would later take the stand during his trial and proclaim that he was God and even go so far as to say he was "better than God."

An Otero County Jury Thursday convicted Ruiz of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence but acquitted him of attempted criminal sexual penetration.

Ruiz was originally charged with first-degree murder but District Judge James Waylon Counts instructed jurors Thursday that they had the option of convicting Ruiz of the lesser charge.

Counts sentenced Ruiz to 18 years in state prison with credit for time served, the maximum allowable under the law.

Though Alvardo's family did not directly address the court during sentencing, District Attorney Diana Martwick said on their behalf that they wanted Ruiz to know that when Anabel asked for God's forgiveness, she wasn't speaking to Ruiz, only making her peace with God because she knew she was dying.

Ruiz said he stabbed Alvardo because she lied to him, just like the people who lied to him while he was at a drug-treatment program as a teenager.

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When Chief Deputy District Attorney David Ceballes confronted Ruiz on the stand about his lies to El Paso police, Ruiz offered no explanation.

Ruiz murdered the 20-year-old Alvardo, then burned her body in the desert outside Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

After disposing of Alvardo's body, Ruiz abandoned her 2-year-old son on the streets of Juarez, then traveled back across the border and told El Paso Police he had been carjacked.

Ruiz eventually would admit to killing Alvardo, but blamed the killing on a panic attack brought on by his post-traumatic stress disorder and was triggered when she rebuffed his sexual advances.

Ruiz claimed during his trial that he suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of relatives and later at an El Paso-based rehab center as a teenager. He said the abuse caused him to have violent impulses, which he has sought help for in the past.

Ruiz, who showed little emotion when the guilty verdict was read, expect for trembling, gave a rambling, often incoherent statement to the court during his sentencing hearing.

Though Counts forbid him from turning and facing them, Ruiz apologized to Alvardo's family and son but also spoke about his hatred for the rehab center where he claims he was abused.

"I just want to say, 'I'm sorry.' I know what it's like to hate somebody like they probably hate me," Ruiz said. "I'm deeply sorry for little Brian. I hope it doesn't affect him the way it affected me."

Much of the closing arguments Thursday focused on Ruiz's mental state at the time of the killing.

Defense attorney Stacy A. Ward said Ruiz has been diagnosed with PTSD multiple times by several mental health professionals over the years and also with schizophrenia by at least one.

She staged an insanity defense during the trial, saying that Ruiz suffered from a "moral insanity" which was evidenced by his belief that he is above god and not bound by the laws that govern society.

Ward, who said her client is severely mentally ill, likened Ruiz to the character Lenny in John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men."

Lenny is a child-like man who accidentally kills a woman when she becomes scared that he is stroking her hair too roughly. He is later shot by his caretaker who wants him to avoid the wrath of an angry mob in close pursuit.

"Mr. Ruiz, in many respects, is a much worse character," Ward said. "He is far more unaware of the evil he does than Lenny."

She said Ruiz is an example of how society often fails to deal with the mentally ill and urged the court to send her client to a therapeutic facility in hopes that he can be treated successfully before he is released back into society.

"He doesn't want to hurt anyone again," she said.

Ward said she considered the verdict Thursday a victory because an acquittal for a client who took the stand and admitted to murder would have been difficult to achieve.

Conversely, Ceballes argued that Ruiz is not mentally ill but suffering from an unspecified personality disorder that doesn't qualify for an insanity defense.

He characterized Ruiz as a "cold-blooded, manipulative, calculating killer," during closing arguments and later referred to him again as manipulative and cold blooded but also "narcissistic" and "antisocial" during sentencing.

"He expresses not one iota of remorse," Ceballes said. "Not for taking her body and dumping it in Juarez, not for pouring gasoline on her and not for lighting her on fire."